Cardoza doubles up for Shasta Pro-AM victory
By Bill Hutcheson
USAC Staff
A pair of 6-pound spotted bass caught
on consecutive casts allowed Redway, CA pro angler Chris Cardoza to
shoot from the back of the field to capture victory at the U.S.
Anglers Choice Lake Shasta Pro am this past April 17th & 18th at Lake
Shasta.
 The
field of 73 boats was greeted by unseasonably fine weather and near
capacity water levels for the weekend’s festivities. “I have never
seen better weather or water conditions on this lake at the same time
and I have been coming here as an angler and tournament director for
many years”, noted USAC Tournament Director Bill Cook. “A smaller
scale event held here a couple of weeks prior was greeted by cold
rainy weather and they are predicting rain and snow a few days after
we leave town”, Cook commented.
The victor, Tommy Cardoza stated he has never really been comfortable
fishing spotted bass events. “I’ve done four tournaments at Shasta and
always seem to finish in the middle of the pack with average weights”,
Cardoza noted. Bearing this in mind, Tommy decided to spend five days
pre-fishing for the event. “I started out on Monday prior to the
tournament weekend and had a good practice all week. I knew that I
could get average limits, but I decided to start doing what the locals
had been doing to catch the better than average limits by throwing
swimbaits. I covered a lot of water and by tournament time, I felt I
had a great big fish pattern nailed down”.
On day one, Cardoza drew Caleb Smith as his day one partner. Cardoza
spent the bulk of the day throwing swimbaits but had his pre-fish
pattern fall short. “I was really frustrated as we had a limit, but my
big fish pattern just was not producing for me”, Tommy stated. The duo
spent most of their time fishing areas in the McCloud arm and caught a
dozen fish or so, but by early afternoon, they moved to the mouth of
the Sacramento arm. “At about 1pm, I switched my swimbait over to an
Osprey Talon and that appeared to be what they were after. I
immediately caught two fish that we culled up and hooked about 8 fish
prior to heading into the weigh-in”. Cardoza and Smith finished day
one in 40th place with 7.74 pounds.
“I was not happy about my day one weight, but the fact of the matter
was, I had by the end of day one figured out exactly what I needed to
do. I needed to stay with that Osprey Talon and hit those slow
tapering points that had access to flats and a wind blown mudline in
the water”. Tommy commented.
Day two came and the angling field was treated to more perfect
springtime weather with temps in the high 70’s and a slight breeze
kissing the water. Cardoza was a man on a mission as he and his day
two partner John Meltzer hit the water. Cardoza was determined to make
his mark as he immediately started out with the Osprey bait fished on
17lb fluorocarbon line on his Powell 800 series swimbait rod. Their
first stop of the day was near another boat and with the slight breeze
blowing, the two boats kept drifting near each other. “We didn’t hook
up here so we moved to another nearby spot on the McCloud”. Cardoza’s
second stop proved to be the key as he dropped the trolling motor in
around 7:45am. “I got slammed on my first cast at that spot and ended
up bringing in a fish just shy of 6 pounds. The very next cast, the
bait was slammed again and I brought in the big fish of the
tournament, a 6.49 pound spot. To say I was excited at this point
would be an understatement”, Tommy gushed.
It was about 10:30 before Cardoza and Meltzer picked up fish #3, a
2-1/2 pound fish that ate the swimbait. “I was starting to get nervous
about getting a limit into the boat, so we hit a spot with senkos and
filled out the limit. After that I went back to the swimbait and
managed to catch a few more fish that allowed me to cull up. Cardoza
and Meltzer hit the scales on day two with an astounding 16.27 pound
bag that would shoot Cardoza from 40th place into the first place
position, earning him nearly $8,500 in cash.
Second Place at the USAC Shasta Pro AM went to George Galetti of
Martinez, CA. . “I literally pre-fished on a sporatic basis for a
month leading up to this one” Galetti noted. “I jumped in on a couple
of team tournaments and a smaller Pro-Am event before the USAC Shasta
tournament”.
Despite the pre-fish, George didn’t really have a specific pattern
that he was zeroed in on. “I think the first day I had a total of 9
rods on the deck and I know that I had 10 on the second day – it was
junk fishing at its finest”, George conceded. Despite the array of
gear, George did manage to catch a lot of fish. “My first day partner
George Conrad and myself managed to cull about 20 fish on the first
day. We were catching them on swimbaits, rip baits, senkos, tubes,
jigs, dropshot rigs – you name it and they ate it. George and his
partner hit the scales with 12.36 pounds on day one – a weight good
enough to secure him the second place spot.
George and his day two partner Mike Thomas went into day two with much
the same plan – hit multiple areas from the Squaw River arm throught
the main body of the lake up to the Sacramento River arm. “The one
pattern that I did key in on was that the fish suspended in the
flooded trees later in the day as the sun warmed them up”. Galetti
took advantage of this and bagged a 4.27 pound spotted bass on day two
with a floating worm fished in one of these flooded willows. Galtetti
brought in a respectable 10.46 pounds on day two that locked the
second place spot up and earned him a total of $4,500 in options and
winnings.
Third Place went to Justin Regelin, a local from Anderson, CA. Regelin
has spent the past couple of years fishing Shasta with his team
partner Jeff Michels and made this his first pro am at the pointy end
of the boat. Regelin, who did not pre fish per se for this event,
started out his day one efforts at secondary points in Packer’s Bay
and Backbone early in the day. “I knew I had about a two-hour window
to hit em hard with swimbaits”, Regelin commented. “I had about 8
solid bites but only landed two fish that we later culled out. I knew
that I had better get a limit in the boat so my partner (Roger
Cummings) and I headed up the McCloud and proceeded to catch about 20
fish on Mother’s Finest worms in Blue Craw and Osprey color fished on
an 1/8th ounce darter head in 5 to 15 feet of water”. Regelin ended up
atop the leader board after day one with a 12.84 pound sack.
Day two saw Regelin draw Doyle McEwen and the duo again started with
the swimbait. “I was not getting the same bites as I did before so I
did not stay with the swimbait as long”, Justin quipped. “We went back
to the darter head rig and quite frankly, I lost a good 10 fish that
would have gone 2-1/2 to 3 pounds each, so in a way, I let the
tournament slip through my hands”. Regelin weighed in a total of 9.46
pounds on day two, which ended up good enough to secure the third
place spot and a total of $2,825 in cash. Not bad for Justin’s first
Pro appearance.
Local angler Chris Karlowsky took first place honors in the AM
division with a two-day total of 20.74 pounds that earned in cash in
excess of $2,100
On the amateur side, local angler Chris
Karlowsky of Redding took top honors with a two day total of 20.74
pounds that earned him $2,130 in cash. Chris fished on Day one with
Pro Rob Bass also of Redding, CA. The duo started the day with
topwater and swimbaits but had no real success. They ended up
concentrating their efforts in a cove within a mile of Bridge Bay
marina and caught their fish in 35-40 feet of water using flick-shake
worms and tube baits, including a 3.99 big fish for Bass. Karlowsky
sat in 6th place after day one with 10.79 pounds.
On day two, Karlowsky drew Pro angler Gary Keeler. Gary had a tough
day one, weighing in only 6.13 pounds, and knew that Karlowsky had a
shot, so Keeler in a selfless act of angling etiquette let Karlowsky
call the shots for the day. Starting the morning not too far away from
the headquarters marina, the two boated a small limit in about the
first 20 minutes of the morning and spent the rest of the day
upgrading. The highlight of the day came on a swimbait tossed into a
foot of water which hooked up with a big fish of 3.05 pounds for
Karlowsky.
Howard Hughes was the lucky recipient of the $1,500
Power Pole prize courtesy of World Boat Outlet. Posing with Howard are
World Boat Outlet Pro anglers Kevinn Johnson (L) and Kevin Stewart (R)
World Boat Outlet also sponsored a
“Beat the WBO Pro” contest with a $1,500 Pro series power pole being
the prize for beating out either Kevin Johnson or Kevin Stewart of the
WBO pro staff. At the awards ceremony held at the Tale of the Whale
restaurant in Bridge Bay, it was Howard Hughes of Redding, CA who was
the closest finishing pro to beat out Stewart and take home the prize.
The USAC Western Pro AM circuit makes its next stop on May 15-16th at
Clear Lake out of the Konocti Vista Resort and Casino. Anglers
participating in that event can expect some heavy weights to hit the
scales as anglers vie for those important end-of-the-year points. To
sign up, contact Sonia at the USAC office at (800) 360-7122.
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